The light is returning.

Jack starts back into swimming lessons this morning.  He pays better attention to the teacher when he's in the big pool and can drown, smart boy:)

We had a rough week at work.  Yesterday we had a patient with a severe allergic reaction to the CT dye.  She coded and we had to recusitate her.  There must have been twenty people in the room at some point.  It took forever for the code team to arrive because the overhead paging system wasn't working.  Then the oxygen in the CT room decided not to work.  All I did for the patient was call for a stretcher, yell, I yelled.  We moved her onto a stretcher.  I couldn't feel a pulse, neither could the other nurses, so one of the techs started compressions and the oxygen got sorted out.  Her blood pressure was so low, I didn't believe it and asked another nurse, a younger nurse with younger ears, to check it.  I wasn't wrong.  I got an IV up and running and then I talked to the 911 operator with her inane questions.  I know the questions are designed for the general public but they're so irritating when you're a nurse, lots of repeat questions.  

We got the patient back and she was awake, breathing and talking before EMS took her.  Apparently she said, "SHIT!" when she was told she'd had an allergic reaction.  My kind of lady.  She'll be okay.  The rest of us, the nurses and the techs, we had a tougher time for the rest of the day.

I went back to starting IVs and screening patients for CTs and promptly started crying.  My patient understood, but it's hard to go from a code back down to regular work.  My adrenal glands had worked overtime pumping out adrenalin and it just takes time for the effects to wear off.  The rest of the day, passed in a blur of patients.  By the time we got to the end of the day, all of us were exhausted.  We all just sat at the desk, trying to decompress.  Our manager is good and understands this, thank goodness.

Last night I could only manage toast for supper and crawled into bed at 720pm.  I slept for almost twelve hours and feel restored today but that was hard.

Otherwise, the countdown to retirement continues.  I applied for my holidays this year, trying to spread them out and get full enjoyment out of them.  I'm going to visit my daughter in Vancouver in April which I'm looking forward too.  She will be working for a couple of the days which gives me time to drive around and take photos by myself, something I enjoy a great deal.

Life goes on, no great or deep thoughts, just getting through the days, one at a time.  That's enough though right now.